The Downton Heritage Site
by theMatthewReview
Summary: Downton Abbey has long since been turned over to the British Heritage Trust as an example of a small, once working estate. It occasionally opens for tours, six times a year. A tour guide in the midst of her scripts is asked about what was known of Matthew and Mary's romance, since monuments to the two strongly suggest a strong bond.
1. Chapter 1

_April, 1997  
__  
Downton Heritage Site, Yorkshire_

'…. The cottages were renovated just before and just after the First World War. Here, again, you see the influence of Matthew Crawley. As a result of this, the working tenant farmers were able to stay until the forties. Matthew consolidated two of the farms and paid for the elderly tenants to be taken to York for medical care and a comfortable retirement. Those united parcels of land were planted, crops were rotated, and produced the most profit for the estate, even long after Matthew's death. You'll see them over there; we now grow all the wheat we use for flour and keep bees nearby.

'Next we will go see Dame Isobel Crawley's flower garden. Dame Isobel received her CBE in 1925; that would have tickled Lady Violet had she lived to see it. Dame Isobel remained at Crawley House until her death in 1952, and maintained the garden she had planted in memory of her son for as long as she was able. The flowers now bloom as a memorial to both mother and son, and now the York Horticultural Society volunteer to tend it.'

'Notice the large stepping stones with animal faces on them? Dame Isobel put those in to delight her grandson, George, who grew up to become the last Earl of Grantham. Of course these kept the boy from stepping on any of the garden plots. But, of course, apart from the flowers, the loveliest spot in the garden is the fountain. The swans represent Matthew and Lady Mary, and the little cygnet, George.'

_'Matthew and Lady Mary must have loved each other very much….'_

_'So beautiful; look how the male broods over his family….'_

'Oh, yes, as far as we know from the surviving letters and the document that became his will, Matthew was deeply devoted to Lady Mary for many years, beginning long before they married. And Lady Mary never married again, though men thought her a great prize. She devoted the rest of her life to George, and when she died, she was laid next to her husband.'

_'Is there a memorial to Lady Mary? After all, she never became Countess and it is all so sad.'_

'The memorial to Lady Mary is so famous, one almost forgets that it is in fact a memorial. Of course you must be aware of the famous sculpture, '_The Lovers' Bench_' by T. Martin Richmond? It was the last Earl, George, that commissioned it, and since the old oak did come down in a storm prior to this, a beech tree was cast along with the bench, and the two figures, Matthew and Mary.'

'_I didn't know that _The Lovers' Bench _was a sculpture of those two! It's so beautiful..._

_'You mean the original is here at the Downton Heritage Site and a copy is at the museum?'_

'You are right, ma'am. Of course, the little pavilion in the back yard where the original sculpture is is not where Matthew Crawley was said to have knelt down and proposed to Lady Mary, but that is his likeness kneeling before her as she sits on the bench and hers smiling into his eyes. Seeing 'the Lovers' Bench' is a highlight of our guided tour, and we will go there before we see the little village, Crawley House and the family plot.'


	2. Chapter 2

2. 'Mama, tell me about Papa…'

George Matthew Crawley became the last Earl of Grantham during Michaelmas Term 1934 at Eton College. Always painfully shy because so much had been expected of him, he had retreated into his studies and excelled in the natural sciences. A certain practicality in him (almost like that of his father) made him yearn towards the acquisition of veterinary and animal husbandry skills so he could better oversee the livestock on the estate. But George received a telegramme during the first week of November:

_'Dear George - STOP - Grandpapa very ill - STOP - Your Uncle Tom coming to Eton - STOP - Please come home with him - STOP - MAMA'._

When his Uncle Tom arrived to fetch him from school, his headmaster had been informed of an imminent death in the Crawley family and been asked to allow George two weeks back home at Downton. The grave look upon his uncle's face spoke eloquently enough to the boy, and George piped up:

'Uncle Tom! You look so sad. How is my grandfather? What is the matter with him?'

Tom Branson gave George a big hug as he replied.

There's something the matter with his heart, George. He is very weak now, and can't wait that much longer to see you.'

'Oh...' the boy said sadly. 'Will he be going to Heaven soon, like my father and my aunt Sybli?'

'He might, though of course he might get better...' Branson replied, as if to say "I wish you hadn't said that..."

Branson released the child, and looked around to see if he was ready to go.

'Is your case all packed, George?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Do you have everything you need?'

Yes, sir.'

'Then come along, my boy, let's go home and see your grandfather.'

***** ***** *****'

Robert Crawley - whose memorial window in Downton Village Church depicts the Sermon on the Mount and dominates the north apse to this day - suffered the second of two heart attacks and succumbed on a November Friday, scarcely four days after his grandson arrived back home. The funeral was held on the Monday following, and he was laid nearest his mother and father, yet neither far from his daughter, Sybil, nor too much further away from his son-in-law, Matthew. From grave to grave, the surviving Crawleys went to pay their respects after the ground received the blustering but merciful old Earl. The distraught new Dowager, Cora, leaned upon her sister-in-law, Rosamund, and her daughter, Edith, for support. It was Lady Mary Crawley and the new Earl that stood straight and strong, stoic and silent, by the grave of the husband and father that might have filled such big shoes with accustomed dignity, wisdom and grace.

'Mama, do you think Papa would have been as mortified as I am now?' the boy asked.

'What I think, my darling boy, is that your father would have felt a great loss even if he was more than capable of taking the reins,' Lady Mary replied. 'He loved your grandfather dearly.'

'Hmmm... Mama, didn't Papa have a lot of ideas about this place before I was born, before he...'

George stopped in the middle of his thoughts. While he had only been in Matthew's loving embrace once, he was more than aware of how his elders remembered Matthew's benign influence on the whole estate and everyone who lived and worked there. It was because the son so revered the father that the son was so apprehensive about filling the shoes of an earl.

'Your father here…' Mary began, looking at the words 'beloved husband and father' on the gravestone before them as tears welled up in her eyes, '… your Papa, Matthew, wanted to make things work out for the best everywhere here, beginning with whatever was fair and whatever was true. The things we should hope to do now are what your Papa hoped to do in the first place.'

'Then… Mama, tell me more about Papa. Tell me the things he wanted to do.

'I will, of course, my boy… but remember, you won't actually have to shoulder things for six years or so. The decisions will fall to me and your Uncle Tom will be the one to see that things get done.'


End file.
